THE BOER NATION- A ROAD TOO FAR?

It has been a long and hard walk for the Boer Nation since the first white settlers inhabited the Cape Colony between 1647 when the dutch ship- The Nieuwe Haarlem- stranded on the Cape Coast- and 1750 when the British under command of Sir James Henry Craig set foot on the Colonial shores. As descendants from the first settlers- these people started a whole new colony of their own. Their main goal was merely to be farmers...nothing more.

As time went by- these unique colonies of white descendants started to live from the earth, by the earth- and with the earth they cared for- and who cared for them. They became so close to the earth the lived from- that they inherited the term “Boer”- not just highlighting them as just mere farmers- but the term indicated a unique tribe of white people that were one with mother earth.

Through their zest and love for nature- they taught themselves everything there has to be taught about the earth they adored and loved. They became the most successful producers of food from the earth- and formed a mayor supplier of fresh produce to ships around Cape Point. It was to become one of the most success stories of a nation whose ancestors came from vast different backgrounds- pushed to the most Southern tip of Africa by European oppression. Sadly- the success story- like so many others- did not have a happy ending, but being a segment on the own- only earmarked this remarkable white tribe for destruction. Their quest for freedom only started the day they became that unique nation..called “Boers.”

The Boers- as a proud nation- never were submitted to totalitarian control. Being free people that choose to avoid conflict- they would rather opt for a semi-nomadic lifestyle...moving away from conflict rather that being drawn into it. This inherent character was not to show itself until the Dutch Eatst India Company were established- and started to invade this unique tribe's private lifestyles. It all started when the native Khokhoi started to steal the cattle from the young Boer tribes. Also was the first real capitalist conflict with the Dutch Company- The Dutch East India Company.

Neither the hostility of the natives, nor the struggle to make agriculture profitable on Karoo or veld, slowed the progress made by the colonists as much as the narrow and tyrannical policy adopted by the Dutch East India Company. The Company stopped the colony's policy of open immigration, monopolized trade, combined the administrative, legislative and judicial powers into one body, told the farmers what crops to grow, demanded a large percentage of every farmer's harvest, and harassed them. This tended to discourage further development of industry and enterprise. From these roots sprung a dislike of orderly government, and libertarian view-point that has characterized the "boers" or Dutch farmers for many generations. Seeking largely to escape the oppression of the Dutch East India Company, the farmers trekked farther and farther from the seat of government. The Company, in order to control these emigrants, established a magistracy at Swellendam in 1745 and another at Graaff Reinet in 1786. The authorities declared the Gamtoos River as the eastern frontier of the colony, but the trekkers soon crossed it. In order to avoid collision with the Bantu tribes advancing south and west from east central Africa, the Dutch agreed in 1780 to make the Great Fish River the boundary of the colony. In 1795 the heavily taxed boers of the frontier districts, who received no protection against the Africans, expelled the officials of the Dutch East India Company, and established independent governments at Swellendam and at Graaff Reinet.

The Netherlands fell to the French army under the leadership of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1795. Reacting to the weakness of the Dutch holdings, a British army under General Sir James Henry Craig set out for Cape Town in order to secure the colony for the Stadtholder Prince William V of Orange against the French. The governor of Cape Town refused at first to obey any instructions from the prince, but after the British threatened to use force, he capitulated. He did so all the more readily because the Khoikhoi, deserting their former masters, flocked to the British. The boers of Graaff Reinet did not surrender until an army had been sent against them, and in 1799 and again in 1801 they rose in revolt. After this- more-and-more direct conflict with the British ensued.

This was the beginning of the long trek for the Boers to determine their own freedom- far away from the Victorian rule of the British. The historical events in 19th century South Africa are marked by the "Groot Trek". Starting in 1835, more than 10,000 Boers, the Voortrekkers, left the Cape Colony with their families and went north and north-east. The reasons for this mass exodus were their British economic problems, the threatening danger of conflict with the Xhosa, who newly settled on the other side of the Fish River, and primarily, discontent with the English colonial authorities who didn't provide sufficient protection and had forbidden the slave trade and postulated the equality of whites and non-whites.

In the border area at the Fish River - constant conflicts with the Xhosa occurred and the central government in Cape Town was neither willing nor able to give the Boers efficient military protection. Absolutely incomprehensible to the conservative Boer communities was the approach of the British colonial government towards the black inhabitants of the colony, who were held as workers on most of the white farms. From 1833 on the slave trade was declared illegal and the "Emancipation Act" demanded that white masters set their slaves free, against payment of a small compensation by the state. The Voortrekkers felt that the British policy destroyed their traditional social order which was based on racial separation, and would undermine white own rule, which they saw as God's own will.

The Great Trek was organized in resistance to the politics of the Cape government. In 1835, the first groups set out. Under the leadership of Louis Trichardt and Hans van Rensburg, they opened up the north of today's Mpumalanga. Other groups, under the command of Andries Pretorius, Gert Maritz and Piet Retief followed. In the area around ThabaNchu in what would become the Orange Free State, a huge Boer camp of 5,000 Voortrekkers eventually gathered.

They headed for Natal to gain land for settling and grazing. To that end they had to negotiate with Dingane, the king of the Zulus. The negotiations ended with the agreement that large areas in central and south Natal would be ceased to the Boers. However, when the delegates under Piet Retief prepared to leave, they were lured by the Zulus into an ambush and killed. Then the Zulu warriors fell upon the Voortrekkers who had made camp at the foot of the Drakensberg to wait for the return of their leaders. The Zulus killed 500 of them and stole almost all their cattle .

The Voortrekkers, now worn out through the death of their second leader Gert Maritz, and through internal quarrels, were at the end of their power. Only their newly elected leader Andries Pretorius was successful in consolidating the group and preparing it for a retaliatory strike against the Zulu king. On December 16, 1838 the Zulus were completely defeated in the famous "Battle of Blood River". This enabled the founding of the first short-lived Boer Republic in Natal, with Pietermaritzburg as its capital. By 1842, British troops occupied Port Natal, today's Durban, and annexed the hinterland as a Crown Colony. The Voortrekkers retreated behind the Drakensberg.

After the Voortrekkers had failed to negotiate with the Zulus the secession of land for settling and grazing, and had endured a number of catastrophic assaults, they assembled at the Ncome River for a decisive battle. On December 16, 1838, 464 Boers under the command of Andries Pretorius defeated more than 10,000 Zulu warriors. The deeply religious Boers did not ascribe the military victory to their technically superior armaments, but interpreted it primarily as a sign of God. Before the battle, they had prayed and made a vow that if God would grant them victory over the Zulus, they would commemorate the event annually. With that battle behind them, they believed even more strongly that white self rule is God's own will.

The monument at the Blood River, a fort of cast-bronze wagons, brings to life the terrible events of 1838, which meant the beginning of the end of the Zulu Kingdom. This monument stood alone for many years as a reminder exclusively of the heroism of the white settlers, who suffered no fatalities at Blood River on that day.

After the Voortrekkers were defeated by the British in Natal in 1842, the Great Trek moved on further north-east and eventually the trekkers settled north and south of the Vaal river. First, they formed the independent Transvaal to the north, which would later become the South African Republic.

In the meantime, the Cape Colony had spread further and all the land between the Vaal and Orange rivers was declared British territory in 1848. The English, however, had not taken into account the strong resistance of the Boers who had already settled there. Because the area was economically of little interest to them, they soon gave it up again. On the 23rd of February 1854, the contract of Bloemfontein was signed, which led to the foundation of the Orange Free State.The "Oranje Vrystaat" developed into a politically and economically successful republic. But this positive process was overshadowed by various negative events in the second Boer state, the South African Republic in Transvaal (today Mpumalanga). The discovery of diamonds and later gold triggered the 19th-century conflict known as the Anglo-Boer War, as the Boers and the British fought for the control of the South African mineral wealth. By now British sentiment was in favored of amalgamating their own colonies and the Boer republics into one union, with the primary purpose of gaining possession of the Transvaal gold mines.

The Premier of the Cape Colony, Sir Cecil Rhodes, first tried to achieve this union through a putsch that failed due to wariness on the part of Paul Kruger, President of the Boer Republic. Soon the new Governor of the Cape, Lord Alfred Milner, succeeded with the use of armed force. The Orange Free State, which had formed an alliance with the South African Republic, became involved in the conflict. On October 11, 1899 a war broke out between these two Boer Republics and the two British colonies of Cape and Natal

The "Boer War" lasted three years. On the side of the Boers there were 52,000 soldiers fighting against a contingent of 450,000 men under British command. The Boers did initially achieve some spectacular successes, but very soon the tables turned. On March 13, 1900 Bloemfontein was occupied and on the 24th of May, the Orange Free State was declared British territory. Shortly after wards Johannesburg and Pretoria fell, and on the 1st of September, Transvaal was annexed as a British colony.

Then the Boers started a guerrilla war that was grueling for everyone involved. The British, under General Lord Kitchener responded with unequaled severity and brutality. The Boer commandos were hunted systematically, the fields devastated, the harvests destroyed. The women and children, who were left destitute and homeless, were kept under horrific conditions in huge concentration camps. In total, more than 27,000 women and children died from famine, exhaustion and disease.

Eventually some of the the Boers reasoned that any further resistance would demand more senseless sacrifices, and peace negotiations began. This was decided after Lord Kitchener murdered, maimed , kidnapped thousands of innocent people to concentration camps, killed thousands of innocent women and children- and burned whole farms in his "Scorched Earth" policy against the Boers. The British could not win the determent Boers- and back in England- more-and-more eyebrows raised to this expensive war that was only to last 3 months- but now already dragged 3 years. Queen Victoria and Kitchener's plans were evil and to-the-point: The war must be stopped to safe face! For this human atrocity England NEVER repented- or asked forgiveness to the Boer Nation to this day. On the 31st of May 1902, a peace contract was signed. Both Boer Republics became British Crown Colonies. This was to stay that way until 1961- when South-Africa became a Republic and a sovereign nation.

Since the independence from British oppression in 1961- the Boers had to face one onslaught-after-the-other from liberal-minded convisticles that sought only the riches of the country. First they lost their beloved Prime Minister- Hendrik French Verwoerd- in a well-planned assassination by the National Party- who sought power over the country. A simple-minded greek- Dimitri Tsavendas- was misused by the National Party to commit this hideous crime against the nation. After the dubious act- the only “white” party that “cared” for the Boers- the National Party - was voted into power. This proofed to be the one of the two biggest mistakes that the Boers ever had made in their young independence, - for the National Party had no direct emotions for the Boer Nation.

The National Party seized the power immediately after the elections- and immediately started their own dark agendas- like the forming of the Broederbond- a secretive white elite society- that controls the wealth and infrastructure of the country. Blackie Swart – a ex-solicitor- was appointed as State President. While Swart was acting as a rubber chap- the National Party was working hard behind the scenes to establish their own clandestine operations of monetary and power control over all the resources and assets of the country.

After Swart- more dubious “leaders” followed in Diedericks, Botha Voster and De Klerk. The country was well on it's way to extermination. In 1994- the official axe fell when- in a “soft-coo”- the country was handed to the terrorist movement- The African National Congress- under the pretence that all the peoples in South-Africa need "equal rights." This farce was just a ploy to hide the fact that power houses in the U.K and U.S.A was aiming for the South-African rich recource fields- and a paltry sum of 10 million dollars was back-handed to De Klerk's National party to do the hand-over honors to Nelson Mandela- a convicted criminal and leader of the ANC. Negotiations and instructions of the coming hand-over was well planned and done in Pollsmoor Correctional Institute with Mandela- long before the 1994 elections. Primary in this “in-job-training”- was Pik Botha and F.W De Klerk. During the reign from John Voster- the Boer children had to fight yet another war of 25 years in South-West Africa against 3 nations- The Russians, Angolans and Cubans- as well as various liberation movements- to secure Diamond tycoon- Harry Oppenheimer's diamond fields on the western coast. This was compulsory military offensives ordered and forced by the National Party- and paid by Oppenheimer. Only white soldiers were recruited. In the mean-time- the National Party was selling-out the country to the ANC back home. Many Boer children were killed in this long war- but they never were defeated. They fought brave against 3 nations and various "Freedom " movements at the same time- and walked-out as the victors.They were then forcibly pulled-back by Pik Botha- only to be humiliated by loosing the country to the same terrorists they fought against for 25 years...handed on a platter to the enemy by dubious and power-crazed politicians.

After 1994 the county slid into an abyss of total chaos- with the whole infra structure grinding to a halt. The ANC- who never were a actual organization bar a fax machine in Dar-Es-Salaam- and a couple of “Freedom Fighters” running killing sprees in the cities- had no idea of how to run a healthy sosio -economic power-house. This became evident today- 15 years after communist and monkey-rule in the country. Xhoza clans are running in high offices- and corruption are rife in top-level seats. Millions and millions of rands are just “disappearing”- without anybody being brought to justice.

Thousands of white Boers are being slaughtered on farms, thousands of whites are being “culled” in city streets- and millions of aliens from all-over Africa are swamping the country- depleting it's resources to a barren dessert. Millions of Boers are fleeing the country- leaving only a handful of true patriots to stand in the last ditches. Mean-while the ANC is pushing the country ever so close into a civil war. The only imbeciles that are making millions – are the top-seat drivers- the elite Xhosa/Zulu Illuminati who rules supreme from the top.

South-Africa- and the Boer Nation- are fast becoming an extinct history- a modern-type of Atlantis. It is now more imminent than ever- that if the Boer Nation does not revert to their age-old instinct of fighting and moving and their closeness to God- there will not be one single true Boer left to welcome the 22nd Century anymore. The sun are setting for the Boer Nation- and if something drastically does not happen soon- the Boer nation as a white clan- will be engulfed into the black abyss that is being called “Dark Africa”- never to rise again. They will join past races like the Maya, Apache, and Atlantians- as races that brought change to this dull world- but did not survive the onslaught of the evil International axis. They simply will “disappear” mysteriously.

One question remains-: Was this road for this unique young nation a road that was just one too far? Only time will tell.